Abe is responsible for leading M&A transactions for the fastest growing private companies in America. He holds the position of Managing Director with BG Strategic Advisors. Abe can be reached at abe@bgsa.com, by phone at 646-620-6317 and/or followed on Twitter @AbeGarver. Over the course of his career he has worked in Merrill Lynch’s M&A Technology Group, and Ernst & Young’s Business Valuation Group. He is also a graduate and Board of Governors Emeritus, of the University of Southern California. Given his proximity to the markets, Abe’s opinions have become widely followed both on-air (Bloomberg and Fox Business) and on-line (Forbes, WSJ MarketWatch and SeekingAlpha). He is also a two-time featured speaker at IRCE - the world’s largest e-commerce conference.

In what Dina Rezvanipour, CEO of 3d Public Relations and Marketing, says may be a publicity stunt similar to Larry Flynt’s (See Page 2), a Bitcoin transfer service has offered to waive its fee for Romney to convert $1,000,000 USD to Bitcoin for free.

Why is the $1,000,000 amount important?

The hacktivist group “Anonymous” and/or Dr. Evil, claim to have obtained Mitt Romney’s tax returns. The person or persons behind the claim says they were able to obtain the 1040 papers by accessing computers in the Franklin office of the professional services firm PWC. The group said they will release the files to the public on September, 28 if they are not paid $1 million in Bitcoins, an online currency.

However, another Bitcoin address was also created, and if $1,000,000 is sent to this second one (perhaps by a supporter of the Barack Obama reelection campaign) the tax records will be released immediately. In other words, a race is on, and whichever address receives the Bitcoins first will be the winner, see Bitromney.com or Blackmail Scorecard.

BitInstant is thus offering to “lend a helping hand” to Romney if he’d like to pay the toll, by waiving their fee for that service entirely.

Created in January of 2009, Bitcoin is an experimental digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Given its relatively anonymous nature, Bitcoins, have been linked to e-commerce transactions involving illegal drugs, porn, and poker, among other things. Obviously not something that is overtly happening on Amazon.comAmazon.com. One (1) Bitcoin currently sells for $11.37 USD. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source software which enables the use of this currency. The software uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network.

In a call to confirm that the offer is legitimate, Erik Voorhees said, “It is”, and directed me to the statement on their blog which reads, “Romney – if you’d like to acquire $1m worth of Bitcoins (somewhere in the range of 50,000-100,000 BTC), we’ll help you get the coins without charging any commission. That’s right, we’ll get you $1m worth of Bitcoins without taking a fee. Not only that, we’ll also show you how to safely use a Bitcoin wallet, back up and encrypt it, and make payments. We’ll even set you up with a Bitcoin app on your iPhone! You’ll be a Bitcoin expert in no time!”

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with flynt offering to pay $1 million for the evidence i dont see why, if it were real, he wouldnt just do that. well…ok there is trolling…and that’s just fun. the whole thing just says “opportunistic troll”